I meet Bobi Wine as he visits London. Heās seeking support for his campaign to rid Uganda of what he calls the ā brutal rulershipā of President Yoweri Museveni who will have led the country for 40 years in 2026. Thatās when Uganda is scheduled to hold its next presidential election.
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Will Bobi run again? āHere I am,ā he says, āNot that Iām the Alpha and Omega, not that Iām the ultimate. But Iāve said Iām available if Iām required to lead ā¦ā
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We look back at what happened at the last general election in 2021 which Bobi and his supporters say they won. āWe defeated them, but the entire world watched as many of our campaign team was massacredā¦.ā
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I ask him how does he keep going after all the beatings, the torture, the house arrest?Ā He replies:
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āIām in a better state than so many of my comrades in the struggle. They get locked up, they get beaten and nobody knows. When I get arrested the whole world knowsā¦.So I keep going by looking behind me. I get the least of the oppression and the most of the attention. But my friends that suffer in the dark are not complaining. They keep goingā
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What about your wife and 4 kids?Ā Bobi saysĀ the whole family has agreed that although their activism is dangerous,Ā it would be even more dangerous to give up.
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What did the recent by-election in Kawempe North, which Bobiās NUP won, tell him about how the general election is likely to be fought? There was well-publicised violence and claims of rigging.
2026 will be a protest vote, Bobi says: āWe know that we will win the vote. But Iām not sure if we will win the count.ā
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Bobi reveals that heās in talks with Dr Kizza Besigyeās Forum for Democratic Change about the possibility of collaborating as well as with other political parties. Dr Besigyeās continued imprisonment, Bobi says, āis meant to intimidate all of usā.
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I suggest to Bobi that his popular support could be limited to his own tribe, the Baganda. The majority, if not all, of the Buganda constituencies vote for Bobi. He disagrees ā we won inĀ the far west and in parts of the northā¦my wife comes from Museveniās tribeā¦my colleagues come from tribes scattered all over Uganda.ā
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Looking ahead to next yearās election, I ask Bobi whatās in his manifesto? What are the issues heās running on? āCorruption is the cancer thatās eating usā he replies.
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We touch on one of the most controversial issues in Uganda today: human rights particularly as experienced by the LGBQT+ community. A much younger Bobi Wine as a musician had been associated with homophobic lyrics. Today, he has a more nuanced approach to the matter: āThe west should stop looking at the LGBT rights as the only human rights, otherwise they will provoke Africans and people of the world to start imagining that thereās a hidden agenda. People get killed every day in Uganda and they should all have rights.ā
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We end our chat on a rather optimistic note.
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āThe future doesnāt have to hold anything for me as an individual. I look at this as all of us. The future is robust. The future is hopeful.ā
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